Can you Make Money Selling Food from Home
The first question we've got is how do you successfully sell food from home? One of our subscribers asked: she has been trying to get her food business up and running from home. So she wants to know a couple of tips on how to make it successful. And the other question was, can you make money selling food from home? So can you actually make money, or is it something that breaks even, or does it cost a lot of money? With this podcast, we're going to cover the 6 tips I'm going to give you to understand how to actually make it successful and not just a hobby, but transform it into a full-time business. So welcome to Marketing Food Online. It is Damian Roberti. And as always, if this is your first video, please do hit the subscribe button. And for this podcast, we're gon na go ahead and hit upload to YouTube, so you're also gon na be able to see it on YouTube as well, down to the descriptions.
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Can you Make Money Selling Food from Home
We've got over a dozen different outlets. You can listen to our podcasts, follow us, and listen to us on the go. Thank you all for your support. We have, I think, 50 to 60,000. Is that right? 50 or 60,000 downloads so far. Thank you guys so much for that. So let's jump right into this. The first question we have is how do you successfully sell food from home? So at number 1, you have to check your cottage food laws. As I mentioned in a lot of my videos about starting a few businesses from home, you have to understand that you definitely need to know your cottage food laws in order to understand what you can sell from home. And then if you find a product that you could sell, which nowadays, believe it or not, this past year, a lot of the states have updated their cottage food laws dramatically. Some states have allowed you to sell as much as you want. Some states have now even allowed you to sell foods that are not even what they used to be. They are not potentially hazardous, but find out specifically from your state exactly what you can sell. And then, how much can you sell that for? So that is the foundation for any cottage food law, because you don't want to make a product that you can't sell because if you do get caught, it could be a serious problem for you at home. Number two, start small with your small investment. If you're going to start a food business from home, make sure that you keep it very small.
Can you Make Money Selling Food from Home
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A lot of entrepreneurs get really excited and hyped up about starting their food business from home. And that's a good thing, but don't overinvest financially in it. Take small, incremental steps. When it comes to packaging, when it comes to renting out boosts or going to local events, don't get the very expensive events, start small and kind of get a feel for how the events work. Try to make sure that you stay on a budget, whatever that may be. Everybody has a certain amount of money they can invest in a small food business from home. Don't over-exceed that. Here's why I say that: I experienced that whenever I first started my tiny bakery. I cashed in my 401k, maxed out all my credit cards. Not exactly the best thing I could've done, but I really just learned a lot from that. So I gave a lot of advice in regards to trying to keep it in a budget, so you don't want to overdo it too much, okay? Number three, make things that you are both good at and enjoy making. Now those are two different things, and it's super important you do this because some food entrepreneurs like the idea of starting a food business from home, but they start to make things that they really don't enjoy making, so they get frustrated, they quit, they give up, and then the pursuit of their idea, the goal of having some type of an entrepreneur business on their own, especially a food business from home, goes away or just dies off, okay? So find something that you're really good at, because also, if you're really good at it, obviously people are going to realize that.
Can you Make Money Selling Food from Home
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The second thing is to find something that you enjoy making, because guess what? You're going to be making it very, very often, and you're going to be putting a lot of hours into it. So one thing that you need to be aware of is the process of making it, and is it something that you're good at making, because as your business grows and you want to actually scale that business, you're going to be spending a lot more time in the kitchen. You're going to spend a lot more time in your commercial kitchen, or maybe if it's a retail location. So find something that you truly enjoy; don't just make something to make it because you're going to give up very, very quickly. Number four, join local Facebook groups, specifically on the social media platform Facebook. Groups within the area of Facebook are specific and localized. You can narrow your search and narrow it down to meeting and greeting and finding people within a certain zip code. That is absolutely free of charge, and it's genius because it gives you an opportunity to spread the word locally about your product. People can find you at farmer's markets, people can find you at local events. You can invite people to say, "Hey, I'm going to be at this event on this date." Getting into Facebook and specifically Facebook groups locally is absolutely free of charge. It just takes a little bit of your time. Post some pictures, some information about what you do, contact information, and you're good to go.
Can you Make Money Selling Food from Home
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Free advertising, absolutely genius. Number 5, your profits. Don't be afraid to price your product. I have a lot of clients that I do consulting for, and they are kind of fearful about charging a certain amount. You are making the product by hand, from scratch. You are investing a lot of your time, resources, energy, and everything that you've got. Don't be afraid to charge for your product. If somebody charges it $20 and you're like, "Eh, I don't know if I could charge 15, charge $20." If they're making a product similar to yours and you see them making money and profiting, why not charge? I know that it's kind of hesitant. I had that same experience when I ran my bakery, but then I realized that my bakery had a lot of overhead, a lot of expenses, a lot of payroll, and everything else. So, I needed to charge what bakeries charge, and I jacked up my prices. I raised my prices to where they should have been. So don't be afraid to ask and to charge people for your product, okay? Because at the end of the day, you don't want to just make ends meet, you don't want to break even, and you don't want to make a couple of dollars on every piece of every unit. You want to try to make really good money and you want to make it profitable so you can walk away with a full day at a local event or farmer's market with a few hundred dollars, a couple thousand dollars, or even more.
Can you Make Money Selling Food from Home
So keep that in mind, price your product so you can actually, like I said, make it successful. If you're looking to create a successful business from home, you can do that, but don't be afraid to charge, okay? Number 6, home-based food businesses are how almost every single food entrepreneur has ever started. Multi-million dollar ideas don't start in commercial kitchens. Multi-million dollar deal ideas for FoodU products don't start in gigantic commercial kitchens either. They start at home with a recipe and an idea. You make it, you start selling it. You make even more of it, then you sell even more of it. Then you expand, and here's a great example: if you've ever heard of Justin's Nut Butter, it's actually a line created by a gentleman named Justin. Almost 12 or 13 years ago, he started to go to a friend of his restaurant on the weekends when he was in college, and he was creating nut butters, like almond butters and peanut butters and stuff, putting them in jars and selling them at farmer's markets. You may not see them in every single store on the planet because he sold his company a few years ago for 200 million dollars. $200 million for a nut butter company. Don't get me wrong and don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Every single million dollar idea starts in a home kitchen. If you want to start a truly successful food business from home, I'm going to tell you that you should start it and get it up and running right now. This is a great time to do it because there are so many people who obviously need additional funds, they need additional income. And it's a great idea because it's very low overhead and low investment. You already have your home; you've got your kitchen. So do yourself a favor; start your business and do think big, but take small steps to achieve those big goals. But remember some of these big, big billion dollar businesses? They all started in somebody's kitchen. So those are six tips really quickly, a quick video, I wanted to put out there for these two questions. Thank you guys for asking and I'll see you guys on our next video.